Dreams-- the night kind

by Rain Trueax

Generally my dreams are prosaic--rarely nightmares, just ordinary activities. When surprises come, they are from who is in the dream. These days, other than family, they are often people I only know online. I think the characters in the dreams are placeholders. 

Once in a while, my dreams are movie dreams, like watching one in Technicolor. Again, anybody can represent the main characters. I had one of those dreams this week, full of color, interesting events; and when I woke up, I rethought what I'd write for this blog. 

The reason I changed my mind is, I intended to write about mystery and how it works into my books. I had two blogs planned for the topic. Then came this dream and it seemed a good way to begin that series.

I don't remember all the details of the dream, from the beginning, but the following was still with me when I woke.

She had met him but didn’t know a great deal about him--- other than he was very handsome. He invited her to a historic hotel on the Coast. It was run by an older couple. The younger couple did things together, but were not yet lovers. They did not share a room. He was interesting to her, but she still didn’t quite get what he was about, except he seemed to have no real job or source for income. He seemed a feel-good guy. Not much depth.

A bathroom was being remodeled in one of the hotel rooms. It looked like the remodel for our farm bathroom. The tub that we have yet to get installed, was in the dream along with the new window that comes next week.

At a certain point, the younger man said his time there was up, and he had to head north to another hotel. Did she want to come? She said sure. They went down to the river where he said he had a boat that they would take north. She saw a shabby one, but that wasn’t the boat. His was a fast looking motorboat with big quarters below. It was a very expensive looking vessel.

This was when he told her what he did—and when I learned it in the dream. He was part of a wealthy family who owned the hotels. He was a troubleshooter, who went in where the hotels were in trouble, and he put into practice better ways of operating. He was wealthy and had a genuine job.

They looked up and saw a bird flying toward them with a crow on a leash that was squawking loudly in protest. As it came close, the bird let the captive bird go free before flying off. She said—that was a weird bird.

He said—no bird. That was a drone and a message from my enemy.

Then I woke up.

Great dream with a potential hero in a book someday (the guy was one of those I use on covers from the model sites). I had never thought how interesting that career would be-- taking on old hotels and turning them updated. 

This was a dream where I didn't know details like that until the heroine (who was not me) found out.

Then came the surprise with the drone that looked like a bird to me. This is where it became potential for a book, as more than the romance and the job, there is a villain. An additional clue that it might someday become a book was the fact that hero and heroine both came out of familiar model sites.

Dreams can tell us about issues in our lives, but these movie dreams always feel as though they come from the Muse/muse. They come from seemingly out of nowhere. I enjoy them like any movie. I have had a lot of such dreams over the years. Movie dreams don’t come regularly, but when they do, it’s a gift with potential for a book but also just a fun dreaming night. I write them down but only a couple have found their way into a book as a plot idea or a scene. 

What the Muse/muse is, I can't explain, but it also sometimes provides the inspiration for titles. These dreams have had me believing there is more about life than we can see. It's why I like to call life mystery.

No, I've never dreamed of a dinosaur or dragon. I might see if I can encourage one if it'd be friendly like this image from Stencil :). I do have a 16" stuffed dragon in my bedroom that a friend made.

More on mystery next Saturday :).